A Picture's Worth
by wolfe80
Summary: Short little LoVe Fic for the VMHQ's Milestone Follower 1000 Word Fic Challenge.


_A/N - Written for the VMHQs Milestone Follower 1000 Word Fic Challenge on A03. Writing only 1000 words is freaking hard! Hopefully it's enjoyable even if forced to be short. Once I thought of the basic concept, I just had to figure out how to write a fic with it._

 _And as always, thanks to Bondopoulos for finding some time to beta this!_

 _Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas._

Adjusting to Eastern Daylight Time had been tougher than she'd expected, but by the time her internship had ended, her body had adapted to it. She hadn't given it much thought on her flight home, but even though the trip had been exhausting, she still found herself waking way before sunrise. Logan had always given her a hard time about not being an early riser. She wondered how long she might be able to keep her body used to this routine— _his_ routine—rising before dawn for the best waves. She'd tried to pretend that she hadn't missed him—hadn't thought about calling him—but lying to herself became too exhausting, so she'd eventually just accepted it. She missed him.

She quietly climbed out of bed, not wanting to wake Backup or her dad, grabbing a box of photos off of her bookcase before curling under the covers again. She switched on the small lamp next to her bed and pulled a stack of photos out to flip through—most taken between graduation and starting at Hearst. Her fingers traced over Logan's smiling face in a picture she'd snapped of him as he lay stretched out on a towel at the beach. There were also pictures of Wallace, Mac, her dad and Backup, but she couldn't seem to help lingering longer on the ones of Logan. They hadn't patched things up before she'd left for Virginia, and the longer she was gone, the more determined she had become to fix things when she got home.

She'd promised her dad that they'd go out for breakfast to celebrate her return, so that delayed her trip to the Grand a bit. She still hadn't decided exactly what she was going to say to Logan when she saw him, but they hadn't always needed words in the past either.

"Veronica!" a cheerful Tina called out from the reception desk as she entered the lobby. Veronica glanced at the elevator doors for a moment, but then decided she shouldn't be rude and changed her course.

"I haven't seen you in months," Tina commented as Veronica neared the desk.

Veronica nodded and was about to explain why when Tina continued, frowning slightly. "You're not here to see Logan are you? You do know he doesn't live here anymore, right?"

The expression on Veronica's face must have been answer enough because Tina gave her a sympathetic look before she continued. "Sorry... at least I saved you a trip upstairs."

"Did he leave a forwarding address?" Veronica asked, her brain already plotting how best to track him down.

"Just a PO box for his mail," Tina said as she turned to the monitor and tapped a few keys. She grabbed a notepad and jotted down the address, tearing off the sheet and handing it to Veronica.

"Thanks," Veronica said, staring at the sheet of paper in her hand before heading back to her car.

The PO box was in Neptune, but that didn't necessarily mean that _he_ still was. He could have taken off anywhere and could just have the post office holding his mail until he returned— _if_ he returned.

When she stopped by MI to see her dad for lunch, she'd covertly looked Logan on up on Prying Eyez, but she hadn't found any records that would help.

The PO box was her best bet. She pulled out a piece of paper and stared at it for a while before admitting she really didn't know what to write. Sharing her feelings in person was hard enough, but actually committing them to paper, in black and white, was an even more daunting task for her. She blew out a frustrated sigh and then spotted the box of photos she'd been looking through that morning.

 _They say a picture's worth a thousand words, but what picture is going to tell him the thousand words I want to say?_

She moved over to the bed, flipping thoughtfully through the photos, finally landing on one she hoped might work.

* * *

She'd been home a little over a week and classes would be starting soon. Wallace had just gotten back from Africa the day before, and Veronica was looking forward to him stopping by to fill her in on his big adventure—a much needed distraction. She still hadn't heard anything from or about Logan, and was starting to doubt that she would. If he was still around Neptune he should have gotten her letter by now, so either he was gone or he'd gotten it and chosen not to reply.

"Papa Bear," she jovially sung out as she opened the door to the apartment, sucking in a quick breath when she realized Wallace was not who had just knocked.

"Expecting someone else?" he asked, brows furrowed in a somberly cautious expression.

" _Logan_ ," she whispered, her pulse speeding up, the shock of seeing him taking her breath away.

His expression softened and he nodded, a faint smile ghosting across his lips. He looked down at the photo he was holding in his hand, tipping it so she could see it as well—a heart he'd playfully drawn in the sand one afternoon at the beach, writing L & V in the middle of it. She'd teased him about it but snapped a picture of it when he'd gone back out to surf.

"I got your _message_ ," he told her quietly as he glanced up at her—his eyes reflecting a mixture of guarded hopefulness and desperate longing.

The way he could look at her—connect with her soul without uttering a single word—that was the same emotion she couldn't figure out how to put down on paper. She looked at him totally unguarded, hoping he could tell how much she really did love him since verbalizing it never came easy for her. The change in his expression was very faint, but it was more than enough for her, and a second later they were both moving to close the distance between each other.

 _A picture really can convey a thousand words._


End file.
